“No, I am serious, this is the very best cheese nibble I have eaten in my life!” isn’t exactly the worst kind of feedback to receive when you have just spent roughly 2 hours in the kitchen, is it? But even without Oliver’s enthusiastic outburst, I could not keep my praise about these super-flaky appetizers all to myself…

The great thing about this recipe is that you receive a maximum of crisp flakiness with a minimum of tedious puff pastry techniques. Honestly I could not believe my eyes when they started to grow in my oven – they almost tripled in height and seemed to breathe. Oliver’s slightly geeky comment was…”Whooa Cheese People”. Mmm, ooookay.

These are perfect for nibbling professionals, well, those people who pay close attention to how they eat something (how you eat Oreos or Prinzenrolle cookies maybe a good indicator). Of course, you can eat them all at once, which is only half the fun, better yet (or much better!!!), nibble away one thin layer after another layer of the flaky pastry, starting from the bottom (where else?!) up to the top, to finally be rewarded with the cheesy, crusty top layer. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Start the night before: Line a large metal sieve with either a clean cheesecloth or a paper towel and fill with the Quark (curd). Leave covered to drain in a cold spot, preferably in the fridge.

On the next day: Cut cold butter into cubes and put into a bowl together with 125 g of the drained Quark, flour and sea salt. Quickly knead together by hand or with a handheld mixer (use the dough hooks), just make sure not to overwork the dough, small visible spots of Quark and butter are fine.

Dust your work surface and a rolling pin with some flour and carefully roll it out to a rectangle, about 1 cm (0,4 inch) thick, then fold the dough like a letter into thirds (when making puff pastry this procedure is called “one turn”). Rotate and repeat the step, then wrap the dough into plastic foil and freeze for 20 to 30 minutes. Throughout the whole process it is important to work quickly, but in case the dough gets too warm and too hard to work with, just wrap it into foil and freeze for a couple of minutes. If you are having trouble keeping the edges of your dough straight I recommend using a large ruler: push it against the sides from time to time, this helps to keep a nice rectangular shape.

Remove the dough from your freezer and repeat step no.3. Put into the freezer for another 20 to 30 minutes. In case you are completely new to making puff pastry and turning the dough, this video is a great starting point (although the dough isn’t folded into thirds).

Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the freezer again, dust surface and rolling pin one last time and roll into a neat square (~ 18*18 cm/ ~ 7*7 inch), trimming the edges with a sharp knife if necessary. Then cut into small squares (mine were 3*3 cm/ 1,2*1,2 inch) using the large ruler (for measuring and pressing down the dough, while cutting) and knife or pizza cutter.

Place them on the lined baking sheet not too close to each other, then brush with the beaten egg. Top with a mix of freshly grated Gruyere and Grana Padano, then bake on middle level for about 15 minutes or until puffed and nicely golden brown (don’t get nervous, if the fat looks like it is leaking during the first minutes, that’s normal). Place on a cooling rack – or eat right away… Best eaten the day they were made.

A nibbling professional! I think that would be me; I just didn't have a name for it before...! I've not made puff pastry but would love to, and you make it seem not nearly as complicated as I imagined.

Gotta try this version as well. We have Pogaca in Turkey but the dough wraps the cheese and parsley. These look so fragile and tasty, perfect size.
I made your chocolate cut-out cookies sandwiched with jam the other day. Guess it is a 2010 recipe. Was very good! I wanted to leave a comment on that post but it was closed to comments due to spams. Damn spammers!

These look delicious, but I'm not familiar with Quark (except from Star Trek: DS9.) What would I look for in my store here in the US?

Deanna, I cannot give first hand recommendations, as I only used Quark so far. But if you research different recipes online, you will find that some use sour cream or yogurt instead (I would drain both). Please let me know how they turn out, if you try the recipe with something else instead of Quark.

Nicky, I'd like to make this. What's a good replacement for the quark? It's not found easily here.

Pickin, I cannot give first hand recommendations, as I only used Quark so far. But if you research different recipes online, you will find that some use sour cream or yogurt instead (I would drain both). Please let me know how they turn out, if you try the recipe with something else instead of Quark.

[...] The Grail of Cheese Pastry - I love me some Cheese-Its. What’s not to love? But they look like hockey pucks compared to these delicious looking pastries. I can imagine eating approximately four thousand of these. (@ Delicious Days) [...]

We have pagáče in Slovakia too. The best ones are made from cooked potatoes. You make the dough using potatoes cooked in their peel, than use not melted butter and you roll out the pastry over and over, fold and roll out, fold and roll out.
Whatever you put on top is your choice.

These look fantastic. I will spare you the English "hungry" homonym, but let's just say this really makes us want to visit the wonderful homeland of these cheese pastries. I can only imagine the wonderful smells in your kitchen while the pogasca was baking.

Hamleys

Mar 4th, 2012

Just made my first batch of pogácsa - they are a bit less even than Nicky's but absolutely delicious, can't stop nibbling... Great recipe!

Hamleys, Thanks for stopping by! Glad you liked them :)

Szilvi

Mar 5th, 2012

Hi, I'm also from Hungary and currently brimming with pride :). I'm so glad you shared this recipe. For us it's a lot easier because our quark is not like your quark, so we just use it as it is. Also, you can use a round cutter (but make sure it's really sharp otherwise it won't raise), that makes a very authentic granny pogacsa (most of us bake round pogacsas) :) Thanks for the post again!

[...] This recipe at Delicious Days for an updated version of a Hungarian puff pastry makes my mouth water – I think I know what I’ll be baking with my daughters today: Pogácsa - image from Delicious Days [...]

Bori

Mar 12th, 2012

Hi there! Nice pogácsa - and I'm saying this as a Hungarian :-) Someone has already mentioned before, and I agree, they are 99% round shaped, not square - otherwise they look perfectly yummmy. next time you could try them using dough that contains boiled-mashed potatoes, or with bits of caramelised onions, cabbage - there are sooo many varieties! :-)

Greetings from Iowa - found out about your blog from a David Lebovitz link - the cheese pastries - fantastic! Had to make my own quark, so it was really a great learning experience. Thank you for sharing your ideas/recipes - look forward to future posts!

They look delicious, but have nothing to do with being Hungarian pogacsa. Not only they do not look like, but your recepie for making Hungarian pogacsa is incorrect also. Would be more correct to refer them as squires, topped with cheese.

Zsuzsanna, Feel free to share your recipe, I'd love to try it.

Eszter

Jan 17th, 2013

i'm Hungarian and it was such a heart-melting moment, when i saw this post!:)))) (try to besmear their tops with eggs before you place cheese on them)

Marika

Feb 20th, 2013

so good, I grew up with the Hungarian version made with pork not butter, way better, especially the bits of pork meat bacon bits all throughout, like a pork layered biscuit pastry, layers of it, egg brushed, made right, its a tender bacon puff pastry with a criss-cross top :) heavenly

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